Blocking People On Twitter Now Just Mutes Them (Update: Psych!)

Update (11:39 P.M. ET): After a slew of criticism, Twitter has decided not to change the way block works. "We never want to introduce features at the cost of users feeling less safe," writes VP of Product Michael Sippey on the Twitter blog. The rest of this post is now irrelevant.

Twitter has redefined the word "blocked." Traditionally, to "block someone" on social media is to cut all digital ties. You no longer see their activity and they no longer see yours. However, that's always been tricky on Twitter because so much of what is published there is public. Even if you were blocked by a fellow user, you could still see their tweets if their account wasn't a private one. Twitter has decided to cease the farce of "the block" for public accounts.

From now on, a blocked user can still follow, retweet, and favorite a public user who blocked them, and won't be informed, as they have in the past, that they've been blocked. The blocker though won't see the RTing, faving, or any mentions by that person show up in their notification stream, and won't see them in their follower list.

Blocking someone on Twitter now actually means you're just muting them. It's the digital equivalent of plugging your ears; they can shout but you won't hear them. Sorry, Mediabistro, but you're going to have to come up with a new digital "junkpunch."

Twitter has updated its help page with the new rules for blocking and rolled out the change. A few Twitter users have already noticed it.

"I wasn't able to follow/RT people who blocked me as recently as a couple weeks ago. Now I can, they just won't know," tweeted Brian Stuart. "Block on twitter is basically now just used on yourself. You block your own access, not the person harassing you."

It's the "what you don't know won't hurt you" approach to combating harassment. Twitter spokesperson Jim Prosser says Twitter made the change because it thinks it will cut down on the vitriol, anger, and resentful Jezebel articles that result from knowing you've been blocked. "Now when you block a user, they cannot tell that you've blocked them," tweeted Twitter CEO Dick Costolo. "It was a longstanding request from users of block."

"We saw antagonistic behavior where people would see they were blocked and be mad," says Prosser. He also says "block" doesn't really make sense when the content is still visible. "Twitter is public, we want to reinforce that content published in a public profile is viewable by the world."

Blocking will still work in the traditional way for private accounts. Someone who is blocked will lose their ability to follow that person, but again they won't be informed.

Blocked users cannot:

Have their @replies or mentions show in your mentions tab (although these Tweets may still appear in search).

Follow you.

See your profile picture on their profile page or in their timeline.

Privacy note: If your Tweets are public (i.e., not protected), they will still be visible on your public profile page to anyone, regardless of whether they have a Twitter account or not.

And here's the new version. Notice the subtle change from what blocked users "can't do" to what you "won't see" after blocking someone.

What happens when a user is blocked?

If you block another user, you will no longer see:

The user in your follower list

Any updates from that user in your Home timeline, including any of their Tweets that were retweeted by accounts you follow

Their @replies or mentions in your Connect tab

Any interactions with that user's Tweets or account (i.e., favorites, follows or Retweets) in your Interactions or Activity tabs

You will, however, still see this user's Tweets appear in Search and if you navigate to their profile page.

Note: If your account is public, blocking a user does not prevent that user from following you, interacting with your Tweets, or receiving your updates in their timeline. If your
Tweets are protected, blocking the user will cause them to unfollow you.

People will inevitably be upset by this, either because they think it makes things easier for harassers or because the harassers hate the idea of being "shadow-blocked," i.e., blocked without knowing it. But it's the tricky part about moderating public forums. Twitter just moved itself out of the role of controlling what users do on the site, putting the onus instead on users and telling them not to look at what they don't want to see.